Roster crunching time is upon us with the 2024 NHL Trade Deadline less than 24 hours away, and teams are scrambling to make moves. The Los Angeles Kings are one of those teams, and the Nashville Predators swooped in to claim Jaret Anderson-Dolan on Thursday.
The Kings have a lot of roster fluidity going on, forcing them to put young talent on waivers that they probably don't want to. Anderson-Dolan is just 24-years-old and has already found moderate success on the AHL level and has over 100 games of NHL experience with the Kings.
Anderson-Dolan got his first standard contract in the NHL in 2022 from the Kings and re-signed another one-year deal last summer, but the Kings just couldn't find roster space for him. They probably had their fingers crossed he would clear.
This is the second forward of the day before the trade deadline that the Predators have added, which naturally makes you curious on what the plans are for Yakov Trenin, Kiefer Sherwood, Mark Jankowski and Denis Gurianov.
Clearly General Manager Barry Trotz is beefing up his forward core and knows he's not retaining everyone he currently has.
Anderson-Dolan doesn't have flashy numbers on the NHL level yet, and that's perfectly fine. He's still very young and his NHL journey is in the development stages. This move will most likely make much more sense after Friday's trade deadline passes.
This isn't the first Kings player the Predators have claimed during this current season. The Predators claimed Samuel Fagemo early in the season but that flamed out pretty quickly, and the Kings subsequently reclaimed Fagemo shortly after.
Trotz has illustrated his desire today to add more pieces to his forward depth, whether that be for the current playoff push or beyond that into 2024-25. Beauvillier is about to be 27-years-old and Anderson-Dolan is just 24. Two players with still plenty of time to reach their full potential with changes of scenery.
Anderson-Dolan will be a restricted free agent this offseason and his current contract is at $775,000.